The cabin wasn’t exactly what Niamh was expecting. It was definitely more of a lodge on stilts. It only had one floor, accessed by an exterior staircase. The lodge had a triangular roof and a deck overlooking the somewhat misty pond it was perched above. As ever, the cold didn’t bother her, but she was aware of how much the temperature had dropped at this elevation.
Nature was dark with brown and rusty bracken, but hints of green peeked through, suggesting the season was about to turn. Icy patches of snow could be seen here and there on the forest floor as if it had only snowed a few days before and was still in the process of melting. The air felt fresher, crisper, and clearer up in the mountains, away from the pollution of the city.
“Will it snow while we’re here, do you think?” she’d asked as Kiyo wandered around the lodge, checking things over.
“Possibly.” He seemed distracted.
The lodge was minimally furnished and was a mismatch of cultural ideas with tatami mats and shoji screens but a comfortable-looking old leather sofa on either side of a beaten-up coffee table. There was even a log-burning fire in the middle of the room with a flue that went right up and out of the ceiling. One shoji screen opened into the bathroom and the other to the bedroom.
“One bedroom?” she asked.
“I’ll be in wolf form throughout the night while you’re sleeping.” He dumped his bag on the small kitchen’s only countertop. “You can take the bed during the night. I’ll take it through the day, if that’s okay with you?”
Disappointment niggled at Niamh. She hadn’t realized they wouldn’t be spending any time together, but of course they wouldn’t. This wasn’t a vacation. Yet, she was still reeling from the outpouring of his story during their drive. As much as she (and he) might fight it, she felt closer to him than ever and didn’t want to be far from him.
As if he sensed her feelings of disappointment, Kiyo’s lips twitched. “You can conjure a book or two to entertain you, right?”
Instead of childishly sticking her tongue out at him like she wanted to do, Niamh gave him an imploring look. “Or …”
His expression was wary. “Or?”
“You could let me run with you?”
Kiyo’s chin jerked back in surprise. “Run with me? While I’m a wolf?”
She nodded, feeling like an excited child at the prospect. “When you were describing what it was like, it sounded wonderful. I want to experience it.”
“You’re not a wolf.”
“Intelligent observation, Sherlock.”
At his answering glower, Niamh switched back to imploring. “Please. You know I’m super fast and will more than keep up with you.”
Kiyo seemed lost for words. “I’ve just never … I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t a wolf who wanted to run.”
“It’s safe, isn’t it? It’s not like you lose a sense of who you are when you’re a wolf?”
“No, I’m completely self-aware.”
Niamh snorted incredulously but covered it up with a pretend coughing fit, even though his raised eyebrow said she wasn’t fooling anyone. She threw him a sheepish smile and persisted. “It shouldn’t be a problem, then.” But then something occurred to her. “Oh, goodness, unless it’s, like, an extremely private moment and my asking is unforgivably rude and against all werewolf etiquette?”
He grinned.
God, she loved his smile.
“It’s not private and it’s not rude. You can run with me. But I’m out there as long as the moon is out.”
“I have a lot of stamina.”
Something like sexual avarice flickered across his eyes before he quickly looked away. “I could eat. Could you eat?” He busied himself unpacking the food from the duffle bag.
Niamh nodded forlornly, feeling flustered and frustrated in equal measure.
“Ready to go?”
Niamh turned from her spot on the deck. She was sitting on a wooden lounger that had been left out there, gazing at the sun as it set, light filtering through the trees and dancing across the misty pond below.
It felt like they were at the end of the world.
It was wonderful.
Her eyes widened at a half-naked Kiyo standing in the doorway of the deck and the living room. Her gaze, with a will of its own, drifted down his taut pecs and tightly roped abdominals. The scar on his belly, left there quite clearly by silver, pricked her curiosity. She wanted to ask about it but thought perhaps he’d done enough sharing for one day.
“Well? We need to go. Sun is almost set.”
“Sorry.” She blushed at his slightly impatient tone. “Just wasn’t expecting you to come out wearing only joggers and looking like a Japanese Adonis.”
Kiyo shook his head at her nonsense but she caught his slight smile as he walked back into the lodge. She followed him inside as he threw over his shoulder, “The less I wear, the less I have to strip off before the change.”
That made sense. Niamh swallowed hard looking at his strong, sleek back and the perfect muscled arse currently hugged by black jogging pants.
She was feeling very warm all of a sudden.
“I see you’re dressed for running.” He flicked her a wry look as he pushed open the door and gestured for her to go ahead.
Niamh glanced down at the sneakers, yoga pants, and sports bra she’d conjured.
Perhaps she had taken the whole thing too literally.
She noticed his tongue hadn’t rolled out of his mouth at the sight of her bare belly like hers had at his. Vanity pricked, she shrugged as she deliberately brushed her chest against his as she squeezed past. “I wanted to run like I was naked without being completely naked.” She emphasized the word naked both times she said it.
She heard a rumble deep from his chest and smiled to herself as she sashayed across the porch. Niamh could feel his eyes burning into her arse.
Good.
It wasn’t fair for her to be the only one smarting from sexual frustration.
The porch light spilled across the outside stairs and as Niamh approached, something caught her eye that she’d missed in the bright daylight. She lowered herself at the top of the staircase, staring at the creature carved on each newel post. It looked somewhat human but had a shell on its back and dish-shaped indentations atop its head. “What on earth is that?”
The smoke and heat of her werewolf companion enveloped her as he crouched down beside her. “That”—his deep voice caused a hot tingling in impolite places—“is a pair of kappa. They’re believed to live in and around bodies of water, like rivers and ponds.”
She turned her head to meet his gaze and found his mouth tantalizingly close.
He really did have the most spectacular lips with that exaggerated cupid’s bow.
“It’s not a very pleasant-looking thing, is it,” she said hoarsely.
Kiyo’s gaze followed suit, dipping to her mouth. “No,” he responded, voice gruff. “They’re said to emerge from the water to do strange things to humans and cattle.”
That was somewhat disturbing. “Why would someone carve kappa into a lodge perched on a pond?”
“Because this lodge is owned by a werewolf who rents it out to other werewolves. He doesn’t want humans or anyone from outer villages staying near the lodge. If they see the kappa, they’ll take it as a warning to stay away.”
“Oh.”
Their eyes locked, and a saturating heat swelled between them like mist rising across a hot tub.
“Time to go.” Kiyo stood abruptly, causing Niamh to rock back on her heels.
Renewed disappointment flooded her as she followed him down the staircase and into the woods.
The sun was still setting, and it shot through the trees in radiant beams of orange and yellows and reds as the pair trekked upward.
“The light through the trees is so pretty,” she murmured, a contentment she hadn’t felt in a long time sweeping over her.
“Komorebi.” Kiyo glanced back at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s the Japanese word for ‘beautiful forest with sunlight peeking through the leaves of the trees.’”
Wonder filled Niamh. “There’s an actual word for that?”
“Komorebi,” he repeated. “We have a few words and short phrases that encapsulate a feeling or a moment in time that doesn’t have a literal translation in English.”
“Japanese is beautiful,” Niamh said, feeling that beauty so deeply, her heart ached.
Sensing her sincerity, Kiyo’s countenance softened and he slowed so she could catch up to him.
“Do you have a favorite word like that?” she asked, curious about … well, everything about him.
“I do like komorebi,” he admitted. “I think of it every sunset in the woods before the full moon.” His brow furrowed. “My mother’s favorite was Takane no hana. Literally it translates to ‘flower on a high peak,’ but its actual meaning is ‘something that is beyond our reach.’”
Niamh’s felt a swell of compassion. “Your father?”
Kiyo nodded, eyes to the ground. “She loved him even after he left us. She loved him to her dying breath. He was her ikigai.” His tone changed as he forced levity into it. “Ikigai is someone’s reason for being. What makes them get up in the morning. It’s the convergence of four elements—passion, vocation, profession, and mission. In my mother’s case, the latter three played no part. It was passion for her. Who she loved.” His expression hardened. “No one person should ever be someone’s entire reason for being.”
It seemed like a warning, another example of him trying to push her away. But Niamh wasn’t having it. They’d come too far now. She wouldn’t let him spoil the mood. Continuing on in silence, she didn’t brood. She didn’t give in to the tension that pulsed between them.
She was here to enjoy the run.
Soon the light filtering through the trees was no longer sun but moonbeams. Kiyo let out a seemingly uncontrolled growl that reverberated up from his gut. He slowed to a stop and turned to her, his features strained between pleasure and pain.
Niamh’s pulse fluttered as she throbbed deep and hot between the legs.
Kiyo’s nostrils flared as if he sensed her arousal. “Change is coming,” he warned, hooking his fingers into the waistband of his joggers.
What she really wanted to do was get an eyeful of her wolfy protector, but she owed him more respect than that. Giving him her back, she tried not to let her imagination run wild as she heard the material of his joggers slide down his legs.
Goodness, that magnificent arse of his was on display again and what she wouldn’t give for another look at it.
She bit her lip to stem a bubble of girlish laughter.
All amusement died, however, as she heard Kiyo hit the ground behind her and let out a long moan of … pleasure? Her skin flushed hot and she spun around without thinking to watch his transformation. Last time she’d been too preoccupied with a vision to witness him in wolf form.
Kiyo was on his hands and knees, his head thrown back as he let out a half-human, half-animal howl. All the hair on Niamh’s body rose. Her pulse raced.
The surrounding energy amplified, throbbing beyond him to affect her. She could feel his pleasure and the slight burn of pain that didn’t do anything to detract from the bliss of the change.
And then his claws sprang free, making her jolt back, startled.
Huge, shining black claws that were utterly lethal.
A crack sounded as his jaw elongated, and he growled unintelligibly as sharp teeth filled his mouth, two big fecking canines slicing into view. His arm snapped the wrong way, making Niamh flinch, and then his legs popped and cracked, too, his ankles shifting and lengthening into hindquarters. Thick, black, shining fur pushed through his skin in patches and clumps, like the magically accelerated growth of grass through the soil.
And then Kiyo was no longer a man.
He was now a great big, bloody black werewolf, twice the size of a regular wolf.
A howl burst forth from his snout.
Niamh gaped, wanting to approach him but not sure what the etiquette was.
Then his head snapped toward her, his nostrils flaring, and Niamh almost smiled. She could still see Kiyo behind those large, dark eyes.
“Well, aren’t you unfairly beautiful in any form,” she teased with a smile.
Kiyo made a chuffing sound.
“I’m not sure what the polite thing is here … but … I don’t suppose I could touch you, could I?” she asked tentatively because he wasn’t the cuddliest person when in human form.
To her surprise, Kiyo padded toward her, the muscles in his legs flexing. Jesus Christ, his head was at chest height. A head he lowered for her to touch.
Warmth suffused Niamh as she reached out and ran her hand over his soft fur. “You’re a big fella, aren’t you,” she murmured affectionately.
A giggle escaped her as Kiyo bussed into her touch as soon as she scratched his ears. It delighted and surprised her. Wolf Kiyo was more affectionate than his human counterpart.
After indulging him in some ear scratching, Niamh’s hands trailed around his large, strong jaw and his eyes opened, piercing her soul.
“Time to run?” she whispered.
Wolf Kiyo padded slowly away, his tail swishing in the night air. He still smelled like Kiyo. Like earth, smoke, and aged ambergris. He stopped, shot her a somewhat challenging look over his shoulder, and then he leapt through the night ahead of them.
Niamh’s pulse skittered and she tore off after him.
He was fast.
Bounding and loping and veering and speeding through the forest, never hitting a tree or the logs or rocks that laid in their path. Niamh wasn’t so fortunate. Even though she was faster than him, she wasn’t quite as graceful as he was in wolf form, and that was saying something since grace was one of her virtues. But at this speed, in the unfamiliar woodland landscape, Niamh stumbled out of her super pace when her toe hit a large rock or she didn’t quite make the leap over a fallen tree that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Yet, as the hours went on and she followed Kiyo, he made a circle in the forest (obviously so they didn’t venture too far from the lodge and upon possible human activity) and Niamh’s reflexes caught up. Suddenly she was soaring through the woods, keeping up with Kiyo as they shared joyous looks of thrill.
Raccoons, squirrels, snakes, and other small animals hurried and slithered out of their path. The trees were a blur of naked limbs and newly growing buds. The patches of snow barely touched them, they moved so fast. The moon glowed on their skin and it felt like basking in the sun.
It was awesome. They felt connected as they ran. A bond sharp and golden strung between them.
And for once, neither of them fought it.
They gave in.
They were one.
And it was glorious.
Until the massive fecking bear appeared.
Feeling exhilarated but weary, Niamh slowly climbed the stairs to the lodge with every intention of falling asleep on the couch. Kiyo could have the bed.
He, after all, had leapt in front of her to protect her from a bear.
Unfortunately, there had been no time to run in the opposite direction. They were bounding through the trees when Niamh almost collided with the beast.
And it charged.
Wolf Kiyo had lunged in front of her, taking the bear to the forest floor.
To Niamh’s horror, however, the bear swiped his claws across Wolf Kiyo’s belly and he’d whined and rolled off.
Before the bear could charge again, Niamh used her magic to knock it out.
By the time she got to Wolf Kiyo, he was already healing. Werewolves healed especially fast in wolf form.
Still, she felt guilty and appreciative of him for jumping in front of her like that. He seemed to forget she was just as immortal as he was, but Niamh had to admit that she liked his protectiveness. Even if he did say he only protected her because he was being paid to.
Fecking liar.
Smiling to herself, Niamh stepped into the lodge and let her body fall down onto the couch. “Oof,” she grunted, rolling onto her back to kick off her sneakers.
The sun was coming up, and Niamh had left Kiyo to change in private.
Sure enough, she could hear his footsteps coming up the exterior staircase just as her eyes began to flutter closed. The door squeaked open and she felt the heat of Kiyo’s gaze.
Her body tensed with hyper awareness as she heard him approach the couch.
“Take the bed,” he said softly.
Niamh’s eyes flew open.
He stood over her. Half-naked. His hair loose and falling around his chin.
God, he was so beautiful, she thought she might die with the pain of wanting him. “I’m okay,” she croaked out. “You take the bed.”
In answer, he bent down and scooped her into his arms.
Niamh let out a squeal of surprise and looped her arms around his neck to hold on. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t respond. Instead he strode into the bedroom and gently laid her on the futon. Without another word, Kiyo left the room, closing the shoji screen behind him.
Niamh’s skin still tingled from his touch.
Disappointment was heavy in her gut.
For a second there, she thought he’d intended for them both to sleep in the bed.